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No feedback makes me lose confidence!
SimpleIntoxication
Posts: 282 Member
Anyone else do this? When you start a story and people look at it but don't comment on it or say much of anything, and you kinda just fall out of the writing part? Like I keep playing the game, just stop documenting the story because I feel like it doesnt matter if other people arent reading it?
"Don't wish...Don't start.
Wishing only wounds the heart."
Origin ID: Simintoxication
Wishing only wounds the heart."
Origin ID: Simintoxication
7
Comments
But as a writer, I do understand how disheartening no comments at all can be, having experienced it first hand.
Very well said!
I'd also like to add that while it can be disheartening, don't stop doing what you enjoy, something I have to remind myself often. When you write and share, as long as you're enjoying what you're doing and like the story yourself, then everyone else who reads it and enjoys it too is a happy bonus
Read this too so you all get awesomes
I agree I often mean to leave a comment but don't nevertheless I do enjoy reading the stories and appreciate the talent at the same time. I will try and remember to leave better feedback in future-)
Second, the best way to have a friend is to be a friend, so make some friends, support them, and hopefully it becomes mutual support.
Why am I documenting my story?
Peach77 also got a great point.
Same thing with putting lots and things onto the Exchange. They get downloads but not many recs compared to the number of downloads.
In the end I just play the game - but I haven't played it so far this year so that makes it about 2 weeks without me playing Sims.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuW44b3uCMtCSaq4gwC8EZg
NRaas has moved!
Our new site is at http://nraas.net
I do have two friends on this site who are reading my story and commenting to me privately, one here and the other by email, and one from the NRaas site who has told me there she likes it, as well as in a comment on my site. I'm enjoying writing it, and I even enjoy going back and reading it myself again. For me, this is enough. It doesn't matter if nobody else reads it at all, and if I never get another comment from anyone but my two friends. I'll finish it for the sake of my friends and myself.
When you start making a story, you're very enthousiast about it and you care for it everythign looks right and put a lot of work in it, then, because of a mysterious reason, only a few people or even nobody reads it. You don't really want to do it anymore because you don't have any readers anyway, but you still continue. But because of the lack of want, you don't put a lot of work in it anymore and it begins to look awful...And less people will read it.
After trying to continue the whole time, you finally quit, start something new and it starts over again.
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I understand it's hard when you do want to share your story and you don't get a lot of feedback, but at the end of the day the goal of this game is to enjoy yourself. And like @Peach77 says, it helps to build up a network with other simmers. Reading and commenting under their story's, them doing the same under yours. I do think people underestimate how important it is to leave a reaction. When you read it and enjoyed it, just take the effort to tell the writer. And as for myself, I especially loved reactions that were constructive, giving an opinion about my characters or what happened. Or what might happen. Rather than just 'nice pics' or 'great update'. Sometimes comments even changed plans I had, gave me new ideas.
Just play the game, make pictures of interesting things, mix it and then write something about it if you want.
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Whenever I shared something I made or wrote up about my Sims game it was about the creative process. Aside from making something for a few select people I never set about to make something because I knew someone else would like it, I did it because I wanted it, and then shared it because I thought someone else might like it too.
A content creator (story or CC) is never going to hear a single word from the vast majority of people who enjoy that content. For example, just look at the number of downloads certain things on MTS get compared to the number of people who take the time to click the "thank you" button. It used to be roughly 10% of downloaders would click it but when I went back to MTS after years of not playing TS3 I saw that the percentage had decreased to around 5%.
If you lose confidence because you're not getting comments from people it's time to ask yourself why you're writing in the first place. Are you telling the story because it's something you enjoy or are you doing it for attention? Are you writing in an effort to hone your craft and want feedback in that regard? If you do it because you like it, then carry on. If you're doing it for praise and notoriety then maybe your time is better spent at something else. If you're doing it to improve your skill there are more appropriate places on the internet where you can get valuable feedback to improve.
For what it's worth (possibly zilch) that's my opinion.
It takes time to get readers generally, most people don't get them right away, it takes time to be noticed and gain a following. I've had my blog up since I think like July, and I've only gotten a handful of comments, most from a simming friend who recently returned to forums and found my blog... like literally all but one comment are her. Okay I also get comments on a thread I post in over here, so it's not like it's totally unnoticed, but if I didn't post there I doubt I'd get more feedback on my blog. And that's one of the things is being involved in the community is important, I mean actually involved commenting on others stories and participating in story sharing threads (I don't know if you do that or not, but if you don't and you want feedback you should. Why would others give you feedback if you won't give it to them? But if you already do that then just keep at it eventually somebody will return the favour).
Wow sidetracked from one of the main things I wanted to say, anyway. If you're giving up because of a lack of feedback, you're actually likely making it worse for any future attempts at storytelling. A lot of the reason it takes time to get a following is because lots of people don't read a story until it's been around a while and it seems like it's going to stick around and keep getting updated and not abandoned. Because so many people just give up and it's really disheartening as a reader to fall in love with a story and then it just stops and you never know how it ends. If you have a history of giving up you're going to have to work harder to gain readers, whereas if you've kept plugging away and got something long running and/or completed even if it didn't build much of a following when people go to check out your stories and see that it might give them more hope that it's worth their time. A bit of a vicious circle when writers give up for a lack of feedback, but it's how it goes.
Also, a lot of people just don't comment but read, doesn't mean they aren't enjoying it. I know some people just don't like to because they feel like they're not good at thinking of what to say. It also adds time which might be a few seconds maybe a minute or two and doesn't seem like much, but if you read lots of stories it adds up. I know sometimes I neglect commenting on stuff, often actually, because I tend to do my reading at like 2-3am and read until I totally crash and can't comprise a coherent comment, and I have too much to keep up with sometimes and commenting on it all can seem overwhelming.
(sorry for the novel, and hopefully it's not too horrible to read... I feel like I have not a way with words today)
*Fairy Jared and Vampire Connor*
The interaction with readers is great and I think that is what the OP means. Not that she wants to hear "oh I just love your writing skills". Someone who creates CC maybe won't mind they don't hear 'oh this looks so cool' all the time (although there often is a comment section under mods and cc isn't there?), but they will love to see pictures on the internet showing up with their creations.
This is so true! After I'd been a forum member for a while, I started using the links people had in their signatures to go to their stories and read them. Some of them were very good, and I wanted to continue reading them to the very end. But not one of them ever finished their story. So I decided that from that point on I would never start reading any story that wasn't already finished, or nearly so, because I hated getting interested in a story and left hanging.
When I wrote my first story, I was determined to not do that to those who read it, but to finish it. I started writing because I had shared several incidents that had happened near the beginning of my game, my first in Bridgeport with a young woman looking to start a band, and several members who read those posts suggested I write her story on a blog. The problem with that was that I started playing to write, trying to keep the story interesting. Eventually, I got to the point where I hated even playing that game. I took a break because I was burned out on it, intending to go back. I tried to get back into it a year or so later, but I couldn't do it. Last summer I accidentally deleted the entire story. I was upset, but it took the pressure off, and now I even feel like returning to that sim and finishing her game without writing it, or maybe even just play it however I feel like, then re-make the lot chapters, write up the rest, and post it as an already finished story.
I'm not making that mistake with the story I'm writing now. I didn't start it to write about it, but the game gave me so many unexpected twists and turns, I couldn't resist writing about it. But I'm not going to play to write. I'm going to play however I feel like playing, and if parts of it get mundane, I'll just write chapters covering longer periods of time, only highlighting only the most interesting events during those periods.
I've just started my first ever high free will game, where I'm mostly watching what my sims do, to play when I'm too tired to write or to play my much more complicated story game. The free will game is amusing at times, but not interesting enough that I want to play it for very long at a time, so it's perfect for breaks that won't take me permanently away from my story game. I feel confident that this time I won't get burned out, and I will finish my story, whether I write to the end of my sim's life, or only to a place where I feel it's fitting to conclude the story.
Pehaps but you still don't just get that, you still need to follow enjoying what you do, it still takes effort to earn those comments and that kind of dedicated following. You still can't just do it for that, of course that is one of the best feelings as a writer, but you can't expect it. It's still earned and you've still gotta learn to be comfortable without it. It still ties back into doing what you enjoy imo, not doing it for any sort of feedback.
I do have to admit, I could do without the "great update" comments, they actually really irk me, I'd rather nothing at all. It's just such little effort IMO, don't even bother it contributes literally nothing, I don't even know if a person actually read anything then or just felt obligated to say something nice for some reason and that was all they could do. And I enjoy when people leave feedback that shows they actually read my story, when they talk about my characters and stuff. But I still don't do it for that, I do it because I love my characters and they make me happy. Other people enjoying them too is just a fantastic bonus.
But you have a point, feedback should be more then "wow good job" on a story. But you still have to not stress over getting that imo, or again you'll make yourself crazy. And I do find most people who take the time to comment on stories do offer something much nicer than that anyway, it doesn't seem to be a huge issue, it'll happen if you just stick with it instead of stressing and giving up because it's not happening.
Yes, this is true too. If you can get just one person who will comment, it makes a huge difference. It might be good for the OP to share her stories in one of the sharing threads, like Play & Share. She will get comments there, which might be enough encouragement. Or, if she's blogging it, she can post links in that thread, and some of the participants will go there, then comment in the thread.
There's another thing that I just remembered that I think might make a difference. Some players share their stories on blog pages. I have mine on a blog, but on standard pages, one chapter per page. The first chapter is the landing page, and always will be. I have a link at the bottom of each page to go to the next one, and a drop down menu at the top to go directly to whatever chapter the reader wants.
On a blog page, each new chapter is added as a post, at the top of the same page as all the others, with the earlier chapters disappearing on other pages as the page grows. I recently followed a ling to a blogged story on blog pages. It was already on something like part 2 chapter 23. I couldn't find any link to find the earlier pages. The only means I could find to get to the beginning of the story was to click the link to the next earlier page at the bottom, and to click the same link on every page until I were to finally reach the first one. The story was good, but not good enough for me to feel like wasting that much time just to get to the beginning of it. I won't be reading that story after all.
I understand. I like to hear if they actually read it all or lost interest in it. Played it or just looked around and it wasn't good enough.